A recent patent filed by Sony in 2012 has been published today by the United States Patent & Trademark Office, revealing the company's interest in finding ways to more easily create new content for classic games that are being streamed through the cloud. In essence, this would give Sony the ability to suspend gameplay in an emulated game and then add new content in a manner that doesn't involve reverse engineering the game's code.
According to IGN, the patent reads: "Finding new ways to play preexisting video games can increase the longevity of older games," the patent states. "Instead of replaying the same level or completing the same missions repeatedly, gamers often desire new challenges when replaying legacy games. In response to this need, game designers have begun to produce mini-games. Within a mini-game, the gamer can be instructed to complete new objectives or challenge their friends for high scores in a format that was not originally designed into the legacy game."
Basic examples of this type of game changes the patent is referring to are limiting the number of lives or the amount of health the player has on certain players.
The patent is titled "Suspending State of Cloud-Based Legacy Applicatoins," would allow for triggers or "snapshots" to be used as the way through which the emulated game is suspended and the new content is then added.
This patent could also be used to bring games to platforms they were not originally designed for.
"The present disclosure is related to video game emulation. Among other things, this application describes a method and apparatus for emulating a video game that includes generating snapshots that can be used for incorporating new content into the emulated video games."
It's unclear at this time exactly what Sony is planning for this patent as it was filed before the company's acquisition of cloud gaming service Gaikai. It's possible Sony will release games in the style of NES Remix, as IGN points out, which offers twists on levels of classic NES games like Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong.
